Hack the Planet!!
I was a fan of Uplink back in the day, but it is certainly time for a modern quality release! I streamed Hacknet for 5 hours the other night and we had a great time experiencing what the world had to offer. You would think I rocketed through the game faster, but honestly much of the time was spent messing around in servers and poking around. The intuitive gameplay, explorable content, and the way the game handles failure made for a really enjoyable experience.
One thing I enjoyed was how intiutive everything was. This isn't linux, this isn't MS-DOS, this isn't even hacking per se. It's an adventure game with a command line interface. Hacking concepts and tools are abstracted for playablilty though it should be noted that there are some real hacking suites out there that are scarily easier to use then what you find in the game.
I'd love to go into details about the exciting things I found, but half of the fun is exploring. One big suggestion I have is to read through the help command in your OS - all 3 pages. Your HacknetOS has a lot of functionality that you wouldn't normally expect. The commands can also let you have a lot of fun! I had a ball changing some IRC logs and websites to include my viewers names to much embarassment and laughs.
An aspect I appreciated is that the punishment for making mistakes is firm but fair. Going into too much detail would be spoiling, but suffice it to say don't just get cozy clicking on the GUI for everything you do. Know your commands and they will treat you well in return.
I did encounter a few minor bugs, some graphic glitches dealing with text, however none were game breaking and I documented this information back to the company. At the stage I'm at in the game there were no hardware upgrades, but I have uncovered a number of hacking tools to provide alternate forms of entry into more difficult servers.
I'm happy to share more of my experience with you, or if you'd like just stop by the channel to see it in action.
DISCLAIMER: I was provided a pre-relase copy of the game by Surprise Attack Games with no additional compensation or influence. Heck I like the game so much I'm picking up a copy to give away to my viewers. :)
EDIT: After a few more streams of the game, and now about 15 more hours spent with Hacknet I'm still loving the experience The universe is solid, with some very interesting servers you encounter that make homages to pop culture and game references in some instances. The banter logs are proabably my favorite things to hunt down as it makes it feel a little more real that people are using these boxes.
As for those miffed about me talking about my stream? I respect your thumbs down, but potential buyers got to see Hacknet in action and it helped them make a purchasing decision (lots of YES!). Totally worth it.